hello everyone.

hey, so... you should all check this out : litopolis.

i'm in it, but also, it is really awesome and has:

Nona Caspers

Jimmy Chen

Susanna Kittredge

Kristine Leja

L.J. Moore

Daniel Pendergrass

Len Shneyder

Jason Snyder

and
Anna Joy Springer

a really great view of the city.

******

i'm fighting off a potential illness. feeling aches and i'm easily tuckered out. i hate being sick on my day off. you know? i'd much rather be sick on company time.

******

i've started reading Mark Z. Danielewski's HOUSE OF LEAVES again. okay, so i love horror. i love horror films. i love forensic files. i love cold case files. i am fascinated by the darker side of humanity. what makes people so crazy. and so i'm reading this book again because i found it satisfying and also unsatisfying the first time.

i was and am completely willing to invest my time in this book of fiction because it is damn long, has shifting narratives and form... and is about human relationships and a house that grows on the inside. the family goes on vacation and comes home to find a door where there never was a door before and a small room behind the door where there never was one before... and how horrifying is that? only it happens all the time... just not so obviously... you walk out of yr door and have yr own relationship to the world and yr door and something happens and everything changes.... etc...

but to come home and find the basic structure of yr house altered.

that is terrifying. it would make me shiver.

so. i'm reading that and thinking again about space / architecture / and mental illness.

*******

i missed stefani barber's going away party because of this stupid almost-cold. i'm sad. was it great?

i will miss you stefani!


*******

that foot is much better. it is walking all over town now and working hard. it is still not the prettiest foot in the world but that's okay since it is attached to the prettiest face in the world.

that's all for now.

somebody send me some free poetry!

Rejuvenated (except for one appendage)!

So Friday we drove straight from Tahoe to David Buuck's house. Well, Kate changed clothes in the Safeway bathroom, but otherwise a no-stop ride. There my new chapbook, which has two excerpts from The Bruise, was spread out on the coffee table. A lovely job by publisher Suzanne Stein complete with green staples. Her chapbook of Stefani Barber's work lay alongside mine. Stefani and I drank a little, then read to a big crowd, and then we played music. Thanks to David for hosting, Suzanne for publishing,and CAConrad for delivering an introduction via email! My gnarled spirit is unfurling!

teaching a blind dog soccer.

teaching a blind dog soccer.

Watch the video

tahoe aftermath:

this foot must remain anonymous.

but, we all know who it belongs to.

just don't say it.

tahoe

yesterday, today, and tomorrow

a quick post before i take maggie and the poods to lake tahoe for actual water, actual sun, actual heat... and actually maggie's 34th birthday.

[buuck's house this friday at 7 people!]


1. suzanne stein was so great last night! her reading and her work [her reading of her work] was/is hypnotic, harmonizing... and enlightening. it was hot. she is hot. and i love her dearly. so there.

2. logan ryan smith handed me a copy of larry kearney's passion last night. which is really great because i was too shy to ask him for a copy and also i have something to read while i'm in actual sun and heat today.

3. i haven't mentioned how fucking intense, insightful and haunting dodie bellamy's talk at New Langton was last week, have i? i could have listened to dodie read for at least another two hours. provided we could have 5 minute absorption breaks. and also... kathy acker really scared the shit out of me with that whole wire falling down in the shape of a noose thing. i had to get out of the building as soon as dodie was done reading i was so scared.

4. david brazil: i need yr email address so i can use you for literary support as i make another pass at Ulysses. thank you.

5. i just ordered the remastered version of Dirk Wears White Sox by Adam and the Ants. and just so you know... this is one of the best albums ever. okay? don't even argue with me.

we're off on vacation now! i wish we could all go to tahoe this week and bbq and drink Sangria in the sun talking about poetry. hey... we should plan a trip together!

see you friday.

band practice.

photos by david buuck





our first hootenanny!

maggie getting in touch with her polish blues grooves...



before i knew about the finger picks and suzanne... well... she could blow on the harmonica AND smoke cigarettes... she's that good. david was on piano. of course.

thanks for sending the photos buuck!

ps

and yes, i'm still reading poetry.

and working on my intro for a certain poet who is reading very soon.

and i just hung out with some old poet friends from undergrad... julie reid, kay elliott, and andrea rexilius. which was nice.

and tomorrow micheal *the cracker* nicoloff and i are going to a movie.

and wednesday elise ficarra and i are going to hear dodie bellamy talk about kathy acker's clothing.

but ... i am still afraid of corn. and worrying about what i eat. and oil. and war. and my sister's soon to be born baby.

corn.

dear friends,

i don't know that vegetarianism is the answer for everyone.
especially me.

i was a vegetarian for 10 years. when i see all the gluten i was eating as a vegetarian... my addiction to gluten... and how... knowing now i have celiac disease... i see i was poisoning myself... and i was an extremely unhealthy vegetarian. although i thought i was healthy.

i think it is great for others who can do it.

and i think now... what would i eat as a vegetarian with celiac disease? i would like to hear from you veggie ceiacs.

how to avoid eating corn [and i don't mean organic corn on the cob... or even corn tortillas... i mean the nasty corn that is used in everything else... including medicines. the corn that is feeding the food i'm eating.]... but how to avoid eating corn, gluten, and meat.

i eat eggs daily.

i couldn't go vegan again. i won't. i weighed 118 lbs and also. yeah. sickly.

i think the only answer is to eat free range, organic meats.

niman ranch doesn't count for me. found out they feed their steers grains the last few months that they live. a last minute fattening up? i don't know.

***

i mean... this corn business has literally shaped this nation. it has shaped the land for itself. and it is shaping americans. physically.

we are a nation addicted to and dependent upon corn.

and so ... when i say i'm afraid of corn. i am.

corn needs us as much as we need it.

THAT is crazy. and scary.

***

seriously. we stopped growing other foods and raising animals on farms because of corn. and what we can do with corn.

***

in corn we trust.

xo.

food.

dear friends

i am having a food crisis which is really a land crisis.

our nation has been built on corn. and our corn has been given energy to grow abundantly [and STRAIGHT] not from the SUN but from OIL.

and we have made our Cows learn how to tolerate CORN so they can be fed cheaply and get fat quickly... only we have to also give them antibiotics so they don't get sick and die from the havoc CORN wreaks on their poor bodies.

it takes 50 gallons of OIL to grow one acre of corn.

does Ford know this? they are advertising for their ethanol [corn] fueled cars and how they will lessen our dependence on foreign oil. perhaps. i'm not sure if that will really do it.

have i mentioned that, like the corn problem farmers have [it costs way more to grow it than it can sell for].... now there is a dairy problem in vermont? because milk prices have dropped. and it costs more to make milk {because of all the oil it takes to make milk: grow the corn, get the corn [diesel!], give the corn....

so.

anyway. this concerns me.

organic farmers are doing much better.

they don't have to spend all that money on oil.

xo.
k

New Email for Magdalena, Maggie etc!

Hello! Att and I have officially severed ties due to their annoying business practices. Please find me at minor dot american at gmail dot com. Hurrah!

Kate said "Are you finally going to blog something?" and I said not really. I just want to know where I can get a copy of Lisa Jarnot's ILIAD. The publisher has sold out. Any ideas? I am too depressed to blog as of late. It seems I am depressed often. Oh well.